Shame: Odisha headmaster arrested for sexually exploiting students

The headmaster of a government run primary school in Sundargarh district of Odisha was arrested and forwarded to court today on charges of sexually exploiting students of the school.

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The accused Tikeswar Naik (53), headmaster of the Geleibahal Primary School under Bargaon police station, has been charged under sections 354 of IPC, Sec 8 and 10 of the POCSO Act Sec 3 of the ST, SC Atrocities Act, police said.

The father of a class II student of the school had lodged an FIR at the Bargaon police station on Tuesday alleging that Naik had been expoliting his daughter sexually and torturing her mentally for the last two years. Acting on the FIR, Rajgangpur SDPO SK Panigrahi and Bargaon police station IIC Anita Pradhan went to the school on Wednesday and talked to the students of school and their parents.

On the basis of information gathered from them, Naik was detained on Wednesday. He was interrogated before being formally arrested and forwarded to the court today.

“Accused Head Master Tikeswar Naik has been arrested and forwarded to court. We are investigating the case,” Panigrahi told OST.

The headmaster has also been suspended from his job by Bargaon Block Education Officer Harekrushna Purohit as per the direction of District Education Officer Dhruba Charan Behera, official sources said.

In his complaint, the father fo the class II girl alleged that Naik, a resident of Sankaraposh Ranibeda village who had been posted as headmaster of the school since 2005, had been forcing both boy and girl students to have unnatural sex with him and warning them of dire consequences if they revealed it to anyone.